Welcome to my blog!

It’s been a long time coming and I welcome you to the show. I’m using my blog as a forum for helping you navigate the sometimes confusing and often challenging task of carving out a career path. I know that earlier in my career I had little to no idea how to network, interview well or chart my career path effectively. Often times I felt that these skills were more inherent rather than learned. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

I want to impart how I blazed my own path. I went from being a stiff statue of a job candidate at interviews with little vision to turning interviews into comfortable conversations. I become someone who could clearly articulate where I wanted to take my career and how I was already working towards that. This led to success.

I was reminded of this progress when I reconnected with an old coworker earlier this week to catch up. We are both business analysts working in an Agile environment. Even though we have in many respects landed in similar roles, our paths to get there were entirely different. My coworker took a very technical road to his role. And while I dabbled on the technical side, I put much more emphasis on honing in my business skills (thanks MBA). We got on the topic of networking and lo and behold we had very similar strategies for how to effectively connect with decision makers to land our dream job.

This reinforced a belief of mine: no two paths are identical. Having said that, there is a lot of commonality in how you can best guide your path by effective networking, career planning and decision-making – among other aspects that we will touch upon later on.

Today, I want to focus on how to blaze your own career path by standing out from the crowd.

Here are five sure fire ways to do just that:

Boldly take the opportunity others write off

The great thing about forging your career path is that all it takes to start is one opportunity. One. Uno. Eins. You get the picture. The best in their respective fields usually took on opportunities that others either wrote off. A good example of this was Jim Carrey taking the lead role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Carrey had been tolling away as a sketch comedian for over a decade and finally got his big break. What many do not know is that Carrey wasn’t the studio’s first choice – it was Rick Moranis! (see #2 on the list) Imagining anyone else filling Carrey’s shoes for this role seems ludicrous now but the reality was that he got his career break by seeing an opportunity in a role that others could not see.

This strategy is not reserved just for Hollywood actors. Each day you can make a choice to create an opportunity for yourself that others write off as not good enough. You can choose to make an opportunity a springboard to bigger and better things. It could be taking an internship at your dream firm, one that you carved out by contacting the firm directly and marketing how you would add value to the organization. It could be taking an entry-level role that is “beneath” your abilities and experience.

How do I know this? Because I’ve lived both those examples. Today I will share with you the latter example.

At the height of the Great Recession (February 2009) I took a job as a data processing assistant after a couple years removed from my undergrad with consulting experience for a large utility corporation under my belt. Why? Well for one I had rent to pay and was out of work. But it was far more than that. It was an opportunity for me to get my foot in the door in a field I was studying part-time – database systems and analysis. It was a permanent position, giving me more stability to pursue my education while looking for better opportunities at the same time. I ended up finding a better opportunity within 5 months, and it was through a promotion at the same firm. I was elevated into a team lead role, allowing me to apply my newly acquired database skills and up my pay cheque in the process.

Think two career steps ahead at all times

This brings me to my next point, which is to think two career steps ahead. In the example I mentioned above, I was not thinking of entrenching myself in that role forever. Instead, I was thinking how it could open up opportunities in the midterm to long term. That mindset gave me the freedom to pursue this opportunity without having self-doubt. It also allowed me to enjoy the role that others might have resented as a huge career compromise. I knew that, by putting my education into practice by querying databases and generating reports for the organization, it would set me on a course to take on bigger projects with more responsibility. It would also align with my dream job that I was working towards down the road.

Always ask for more

The way I parlayed the data entry job into something bigger and more aligned to my career objectives was by showing that I was not only able to rise to the occasion but was always ready to add more value to the organization. I made this clear by consistently communicating that I had extra bandwidth to help my department beyond what I had been assigned. There were times when there was nothing else I could do within my department so I made myself available to other departments (with my boss’ blessing). Even if it was conducting menial and repetitive tasks like filing documents, it was my initiative to go above and beyond that helped positioned me for further opportunities and challenges at the firm.

Always be curious

The other side of the coin is to show curiosity and interest in the organization you are working at. The ways to convey this are vast. Here are some for you to chew on:

Ask to job shadow a different department to learn more about the interdependencies between departments at your company.

Do informational interviews internally with decision makers in different operational areas.

Ask to be cross-trained with others in your department to improve coverage.

Look into internal training opportunities to open new doors for yourself.

…And remember, celebrate your path

This has probably been the hardest one on the list for me but is definitely the most important and rewarding. No matter where you are in your life – celebrate your success! If you are doing everything in your power to learn, grow and seize as many opportunities that align with who you are then you are on the right path and you can be proud of yourself.

What do you think are the keys to move your career forward?

Post your thoughts below and let’s discuss!